Tips For Keeping Your E-Commerce Business Secure

Working in e-commerce comes with quite a lot of stress and worries. It’s definitely one of the most exciting modern business pursuits we have today. But this booming industry can be a dangerous one if you don’t play your cards right.

I’m referring, of course, to the safety of your business. More than most other Internet business, you will be dealing with a lot of payments. It means you’re going to have an astonishing amount of customer information on your records. If you don’t keep such information secure (as well as your own), then you face quite severe legal action.

Here are some of the things you should keep in mind if you want your business to be as secure as possible.

Make Sure The Third Parties Are Reliable

You may think it’s easy enough to ensure the security of your business. You can investigate pretty much every area that your business is going to deal in directly. You can get the right software, the right hardware, and do thorough combings for all potential compliance problems. But one thing you mustn’t forget is that you’re probably going to have to work with third parties!

It could be inventory vendors, IT professionals, or payment assistant companies. Whoever it is, you’re eventually going to find yourself having to collaborate. And when other companies are allowed into your system, you need to know that you can trust them. Before working with any other organization, make sure you know all you can about their reputation. Read their terms carefully. Find out how they do business. Check any reviews made by previous clients.

Keep Customer Data As Hidden As Possible

When you’re dealing with the payment data of people outside your business, there are several laws you need to follow. The most pertinent to you is making sure you’re meeting the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. You may have seen this written as PCI DSS.

There are several ways in which you can make this step easier. There are security systems you can set up to make sure that criminals aren’t listening in. You can also use the relatively new Tokenization PCI methods to abstract customer data as much as possible.

Create A Strong Security Culture Among Your Employees

For many office workers, the security measures their employers take are a complete mystery. Don’t let this happen in your office! The fact is that you can create a stronger defense against cyber-crime and other threats by making everyone in your office aware of the dangers. They should also understand as much about the precise methods you’re using as possible.

One of the ways to do this is to ensure you have strong guidelines for employees to follow. But this is fairly standard practice. Take it a step further by making sure each employee has security software on their computer and that they know how to use it. If possible, have a tech security expert come in to run a short training course. This can help your employees better detect when something is awry with the data you’re holding.